Have you ever read a book that just ensnares you? Has you thinking about the characters well after it’s over? Not Another Love Song was that for me.

Julie does a fantastic job of making you think you’re a literal musician who totally understands the inner workings of playing the violin and cello. I lovedddd how she described the experience of playing the intrustments.

This is an extreme slow burn of a book but MAN was the romance romancing by the end. It did have a super ROUGH 3rd act break up which we know I’m not a huge fan of, but I am a big fan of Julie so 🤷🏾‍♀️

Tropes:

🎼 rival musicians
🎼 hate to lovers
🎼 forced proximity
🎼 famous MMC

3⭐️

Unfortunately this book wasn’t it for me and would be much better suited for someone with experience and interest in classical music.

I’m addicted to this young man!

Best book I’ve read this year! I couldn’t put it down and I want more! He’s obsessed with her! And I’m obsessed with that!

Xander and Gwen meet at a wedding when she is asked to play the cello (she is a violinist!!!!) ! Can she do it? Of course she can! She’s a musical genius!

When he asked for her name and where she came from, and she hit him back with, “I sit across from you at the pops every week.” Chills!

Soto is officially an auto-buy author for me. I loved her debut novel and I loved this one. I felt like I could visualize/hear the original compositions Soto described. Also the chemistry between the characters was incredible. Would re-read and recommend this!

This book was so good!! I loved it way better than forget me not!

I personally haven’t dipped into the genres of music/rockstar romances much. But this story didn’t disappoint. This book was so much better than Forget me Not. The love story and tension between the two was flying off the pages of the book.
I will definitely be exploring more music star romances!

I feel like I am in the minority here but, it was just alright. I didn’t really connect with the characters, skimmed a lot of the spice (as a result), and found myself checking how much I had left in a chapter. Unfortunately the stakes weren’t that high and the “villain” was mediocre at best. It felt like a whole lot of nothing for the first half and the final conflict had me feeling indifferent. Where was the pining and desire? What I do have to praise is that Soto seemed to have done a lot of research for this book, and it shows. Furthermore, from a technical perspective the writing itself was well done, though overshadowed by areas that could have been worked on more (a plethora of side characters and pacing). Unfortunately not my cup of tea but it might tickle your fancy. It’s not a book I’d read again

This was such a good time!! Such a good romance and I wasn’t even mad at the third act breakup!! Loved the couples chemistry and having classical music composition as the background of this was different and really cool to read about! That last 15% actually made me so emotional for literally no reason. My lip was legit almost quivering even though it was a happy ending lol. Overall just really loved it. 5/5⭐️

I loved this book so much. Soto had me in a chokehold (yet again, I’m a major fan of Forget Me Not). This book feels like listening to vitamin string quartet while watching Bridgerton—lots of strings, lots of emotion, lots of heat. Looking forward to reading this again and again and again.

I really enjoyed this! The tension, the music, the perfect slow burn - it was so beautifully written and woven together. Highly recommend!

I LOVED the beginning. I could start to build an idea of Gwen, Xander, and Jacob (a side character).

However, as we go on there were some things I struggled with.

Gwen felt flat.
We learned more about other people’s struggles and their backstory, but not enough about Gwen’s.

I loved "Forget Me Not," but I am in love with "Not Another Love Song." Alex and Gwen writing love notes to each other through there compositions absolutely makes my heart swoon!

Not Another Love Song made my heart absolutely sing!

As a musician myself, this book resonated with me so much. How Julie Soto was able to convey what it feels like to perform, to audition, to play with abandon, and to be affected by the music and vice versa was so powerful. I absolutely loved it, and it made me want to grab some sheet music.

This book is for people who settled into a life they’re happy with because it’s safe, not because they love it. It’s for people who are scared to go after what they want. It’s for people who are always scared of letting people down. It’s for people who feel music, or whatever their passion is, deep in their bone marrow.

The romance is amazing, the character growth is beautiful, and I can’t wait to read more from Julie Soto. 5 stars

My review will be posted to Instagram in the 14 days leading up to publication, and to Amazon on publication day

Be still my heart! Quick, cozy read that gives all the feels. I tell you when Soto described them playing I waned to close my eyes because I swore I felt their music playing around me. Enjoyed this!

Gwen is a violin prodigy who plays for the Manhattan Pops. Xander is also a player and is also the cellist for Gwen's favorite band. Even though they've been playing together for a year, Xander has always ignored Gwen. When they cross paths at an Ama wedding, he can't stop insulting her at every turn even when that isnt his intention. Thus begins their tension-filled back and forth. Turns out their pasts overlap quite a but and people who have harmed Xander in the past may be looking to use Gwen as well.

I thought reading about music might be a little boring but I was so wrong. This book is sexy and so intense.

I want to start by saying I probably would appreciate this book more if I knew more about music and composing. A lot of the details and descriptions flew over my head. This book is very heavy on the descriptions so I found myself skimming paragraphs because I was familiar with all other musical lingo. I found the pacing of this story to be off as well. Some parts felt unnecessarily drawn out, while others were quite rushed.

Xander vs Alex is made out to be two very different people which gets somewhat confusing when it comes to how Gwen feels about him. I definitely felt the fan fiction vibes when it came to her original feels for him. Xander was so rude to her, and yet she continued to pine over him because of her childhood crush.

It felt as though conflict is solved before it really starts in the later half of the book. Then there’s the big third act breakup, whose resolution comes overly quick. Again, pacing issues that impacted overall how this reads.

I did enjoy Gwen and especially Mabel as characters. Nathan was the absolute worst, and I can’t tell you how I feel about Alex truthfully. However, if you love music, I feel like this would be your jam!

When Gwen, a professional violinist, runs into a Xander, a professional cellist, at a wedding, she's hurt that he doesn't recognize her--they've sat across from each other in pops orchestra for almost a year. When he tries to give her pointers after her performance, she's even more annoyed. But after Gwen is selected as first chair in the orchestra--a position apparently Xander had coveted--the tension between them escalates. It's a tale of two music prodigies, with two very different paths that seemingly can't help but intersect in romantic and musical crescendo.

I'm not sure why I was surprised at how truly wonderful this book was given how stellar Julie Soto's first mainstream book, Forget Me Not, was. But this book was absolutely amazing. The way Soto described the two playing, the music, and their romance was just fantastic to read. Both the sweet and spicy moments leap of the page in a tangle of beautiful prose. As a former (terrible) cellist myself, it was lovely to see the instrument highlighted and I loved where the characters ended up. No notes.

Thanks for Forever for my ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 10/10

The competitive world of music meets romance in Julie Soto’s newest book and I loved every moment of it!!

The slow burn in this book between Xander and Gwen is AMAZING and the way they bring out of the best music in each other is so sweet!! Seeing them grow and their idea of responsibility change throughout the book was one of the best parts!!

I’d recommend this book to anyone who needs a quick light romance read!!

my god, this was a disaster. I am so sad that I didn't enjoy this. i was so so excited 😭

The characters had absolutely no depth; every single one, main or side, felt like a caricature. The only redeeming aspect of the entire book was Xander/Alex's point of view. That part was well-written and actually elicited some emotion from me.

But for a romance book, it did not feel romantic at all. where was the chemistry? The romance felt so forced. & the spice? UGH I hated how many musical terms were included in the spicy scenes; it completely threw me off and bored me. By the end, I couldn't even understand what brought these two characters together. They barely had any proper conversations. Every time he tried to talk to her after the cello scene, she'd run away like a child. There was no character or relationship development. they decided they wanted to fuck, they fucked, they decided to date after. & just kept fucking. every other chapter was just them getting hot and heavy, i was YAWNING & literally rolling my eyes so hard i developed a headache.

Gwen read like a 13-year-old to me-so juvenile and devoid of personality. The blandest food you can think of has more flavor than her.

As for the side characters, there are Asian and gay side characters, but for what purpose? They felt included just for the sake of diversity without any depth. The Asian character was annoying, grating, and just horny, while the gay character was a walking stereotype. that just rubbed me the wrong way tbh.

this might be vaguely spoilery so proceed with caution: the whole treating Xander and Alex as two different people made me incredibly uncomfortable, and I can't even articulate why. i understand that some people will find depth in the situation and appreciate the complexity & initially i did too but it just made me uncomfortable after a while.

also the third act was not it at all. where was the resolution? it was so messy, they literally just had sex & made up. no real conversation, no addressing of emotions, no sign of maturity absolutely NOTHING.

I genuinely couldn't stand this book, but I'm going to stop now. I need to meditate this book out of my mind and move on.

thank you to forever publishing & netgalley for an e-arc of this book. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

Let me tell you something, Julie Soto has officially solidified herself as an auto-buy author for me! Listen I loved forget me not but WOW this one really ate down and is my new favorite of hers. I loved the progression of their relationship and how they started off hating one another to slowly becoming something more. You know when people say “oh yeah it’s enemies to lovers” but the MMC is barely even mean? Well this man was MEAN in the beginning, I was gagged I won’t lie. But what I loved is we get little glimpses into his POV and what he is thinking and it starts to make sense little by little. I thought she paced everything so well and I was invested the entire time. Also they’re SO hot holy shit, like the cello scene?!?! Iykyk🤭 definitely recommend picking this one up once it comes out!
Thank you to Netgalley and Foreverpub for the ARC<3

I don't know if it was just my perception but in this book the music was like a third character for me, I don't think I've ever had that happen in a book, but I loved it.

The characters were amazing, totally different from each other in terms of musical education and social classes, but their chemistry was palpable from the first moment.
It's an Enemies to Lovers story that made me laugh and sigh a lot, mostly sigh.

The book overflows with love, and I loved it from beginning to end. I devoured it in a matter of hours.